Wednesday, December 28, 2011

First real snow of the year yesterday...

...and it was slushy and icky. Great big wet flakes that had been preceded by a mix of rain and snow.

And I had to get a letter to the post office to have it priority mailed.

This is the second winter since I have learned to trust the traction control, rather than feathering the pedal at the first sign of wheelspin. I must grudgingly admit that Robby the Robot is pretty good at getting just enough power to the pavement, although the strange, bogging sound from the engine is really hard to live with.

(And, of course, it doesn't provide much help with cornering, which is best done gingerly. I imagine trying it on slicks would be worse, but not terribly much.)

14 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The first time I drove our Honda Odyssey in snow was an eye opener for me. I was used to driving my 4x4 and didn't expect much from the Honda's traction control. It worked so well on the icy hill leading up to my inlaws' house that I turned it off to see what would happen. All forward movement stopped and the wheelspin began. I hit the button again and the van started moving smoothly up the hill. Of course, turning isn't improved, but moving forward and stopping (via antilock brakes that actually work well) are much improved over anything we've owned before. I feel more comfortable having my wife drive the van in bad weather than the 4x4 (which still requires knowing when 4wd is useful and when it isn't, how to apply gas and brake, etc).

My jeep 4x4 has 4 wheel traction control, anti-lock this and that, roll-over control, and about every other kind of safety thing you could possibly come up with. It's kinda boring to drive even in the worst weather.

"How do you think about your quote of the day from 21 Dec, in light of this post?

Curious minds want to know."

I think some people take things way too literally, for one. (And perhaps didn't completely read the linked post, nor my commentary, instead preferring to get their dander in a fluff from the jumpoff. I prefer that to the thought that they had read it all, but could not comprehend what they had read.)

For another, I could do the same thing without the ASC (and have, including some yesterday, just to get a feel for the road conditions,) it would just require more work.

I think everybody would probably be much better drivers in poor traction conditions if they sold their cars and commuted to work on a motorcycle for four years, weather-be-damned, like I did, but obviously I wouldn't mandate it.

You wanna make me ride the bike through a Minnesnowta winter? Geez, thanks.

Been there, done that. I only had a 185cc Honda one year. You ever try to get your left foot under the shift lever while wearing Sorels? To get from 1st to 2nd you've gotta stick your leg way out to the side, and put the toe of your pac-boots under the tip of the shifter from the outside.

I don't think it got below -20F more than two or three times that year. I might have frozen off parts I'd like very much to keep otherwise.

I learned to drive on the roads in a 1971 Chrysler Newport. Winter in WV in a car like that is interesting to say the least. It was so heavy that you had to plan your turns from a half mile away, before you could even see them much less get there. And the back road that I lived on was one lane wide with a steep hill at each end so no matter which way you went to get out, you had to know how to give the car exactly enough gas to get up the hill without going over the side or sailing right past the hairpin turn at the end of the hill. Your traction control was provided by the cinderblocks you put in the trunk over the rear axle, sand and a shovel if you went off the road, and a blanket if that wasn't enough to get you out.

I try to avoid snow nowadays, but the lessons come in handy when it starts to rain down here in FL. Black ice gets about as slick as some snow covered roads I've been on. Throws me when some yo-yo goes by paying no attention while chatting on a cell phone on a slick road, and all too often I see them piled up with someone else because of it.

I don't know about your particular Z3, but the traction control in mine sucked. The car would act like a dog dry-humping something. Although, I was trying to drive on mountain roads and not the pool table topography of where you live.

Barring having no trunk space to speak of, and being horrendously expensive to fix, the Z3 was otherwise a fine car.

"I think some people take things way too literally, for one. (And perhaps didn't completely read the linked post, nor my commentary, instead preferring to get their dander in a fluff from the jumpoff. I prefer that to the thought that they had read it all, but could not comprehend what they had read.)

For another, I could do the same thing without the ASC (and have, including some yesterday, just to get a feel for the road conditions,) it would just require more work.

I think everybody would probably be much better drivers in poor traction conditions if they sold their cars and commuted to work on a motorcycle for four years, weather-be-damned, like I did, but obviously I wouldn't mandate it."

Thanks for the reply to my comment. I guess I missed my mark in trying to be funny, tho. Didn't want snarky or anything like that, I just got a tickle out of reading AC's post (although I really do like my auto headlights)then hearing you say you had fun with your traction control.

I'm pretty sure that traction control systems are not retrofitable to old muscle cars. I never had to attempt to drive my '71 Mustang 429SCJ in snow. Just trying to scale steep driveways, dry, whether paved or gravel, was an exercise in frustration. Having rear disc brakes, instead of drum, might have helped with controlling the torque delivered through the auto trans and 4.11 Detroit Locker rear end.

The only excessive thing it needed, and didn't have, was traction. Weight distribution was pitiful.

Heaviest engine/trans package put into a production car, that itself was already too nose heavy. Should have been in a Pantera, not a Mustang.